Here are my initial notes from the clip:
Music - straight away
introduced to what appears to be main character straight away (also narrates) RENTON
chase scene - in trouble?
stereotypically quite rough looking, ear piercing, dirty looking clothes, shaved head
'fucking'
hit by a car - reckless
'choose..' repeated, emphasis, advising the audience
repeatedly swearing
contradictory 'choose health' while smoking
drugs, alcohol
rhetorical question. 'why would I want to do a thing like that?'
'Who needs reasons when you're got heroine?' VERY clearly a drug addict
The first camera angle of the opening clip is a very simple one of lots of people walking around in a street, then suddenly someone runs into the shot and music begins to play. The music already gives a fast pace to the music and compliments the chase scene that comes.
This is when we are introduced to the main character 'Renton' who is played by Ewan McGregor. In 1996 when this film came out, McGregor wasn't a massive actor and had only been acting for 3 years. This is popular for social realism films because its cheaper for the genre as they tend to have smaller budgets than other and it adds reality to the film, as an audience we can build our own judgements on the characters as they know little about them as actors.
By Renton starting straight away by narrating to the audience the audience already feel like they are being spoken to directly and makes the narration at the beginning seem more personal and the audience is more likely going to want to understand Renton.
He also repeatedly says the word 'choose'...as if he is advising the audience.
The fact that Renton is being chased at the beginning suggests that he has done something wrong or upset someone, implying that he is in some sort of trouble. This makes the audience question what sort of trouble he could be in and what kind of man he is. Whether he is stereotypically 'rough' or if he is a bad role model etc.The contradiction of 'choose health' while smoking (possibly drugs) suggests that he is in fact a bad role model even if he is advising the audience against it.
Renton as a character looks quite stereotypically 'rough' with an earring and a shaven head with quite dirty looking clothes. His clothes are also quite cheap looking which suggests that he can't afford more expensive clothing and the possibility of lack of money can also be shown in the lack of furniture in his house and the whole in a wall suggests carelessness and lack of respect for the things he does own. He can also fit a 'rough' stereotype with his use of language and how he swears on several occasions.
There is introduction to all of the main characters by freezing a moving picture and putting a name of them or their nickname next to them. This is to show the audience who will be involved in the film and also gives them a small snippet of the type of person they are and their personalities after the image has been unfrozen.
The characters names are very simple and all of the lettering is in capitalized showing the importance of each character. The colour of the words are plain white which goes well and with the darkness of the background, making the words more bold.
The name only lasts for three seconds but is still enough time for the audience to read it and take in the frozen image behind.
The question 'who needs reasons when you're got heroine?' at the end, shows the main theme of the film which is a very stereotypical theme for social realism as it focuses on real life issues, drugs being one of them. Quite often social realism films show the negativity of drug use and can be used to get the audience to think of the consequences of things such as drugs.
The repetitiveness of drinking, smoking and drugs shots also helps emphasize the important role they have on the characters and throughout the film.
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